The Sword that Protects
by waiting4morning
Summary: "Defeat isn't an option for the sword that protects others." Rurouni Kenshin drabbles and oneshots.
1. RuroKen Week Day 1 Lesson

Inspired by the Ruroken Week over on tumblr. The timezone it's in is way ahead of mine though so technically I'm late. :/

Day 1: Lesson or technique

Warning: FLUFF

* * *

Kaoru woke slowly aware of the light of the morning coming through the rice paper doors. She ached a little. Nothing especially painful, more like exercising a muscle that hadn't been worked in awhile.

And as she recalled the reason for that ache, she opened her eyes.

The space beside her was empty.

She lifted her head, her sleepy contentment vanishing. "Kenshin?"

If it weren't for a stray red hair lingering on the blanket next to her, she might have thought the previous day's activities a dream. Tae giggling and tugging on her wedding kimono; meeting Kenshin's eyes clear and bright over the cups of sake, and then at home where it was both familiar and strange. Familiar because it was the place she'd always known and strange because the Kenshin beside her was no longer the same Kenshin. He was her husband .

Kaoru blushed fiercely as she remembered the night's revelations and stood from the futon, folding her yukata around her.

She'd thought everything had gone well last night. There had been awkwardness and fumbling and nervous laughter from both of them. But there had also been a tenderness in his eyes and his touch that melted whatever lingering anxiety Kaoru had been hiding about being compared to his first wife. To Tomoe.

Had she been wrong? Had Kenshin merely humored her because he felt obligated to? Kaoru paused at the engawa overlooking the garden, feeling sick. What if he hadn't wanted to marry her at all? What if the idle gossip of the neighbors had gotten to him? She'd told him over and over again that it didn't bother her and those that truly knew her harbored no ill thoughts about her longtime boarder.

But the gossip had only gotten worse after the Enishi incident. Kaoru swallowed hard against the bile that rose in her throat. Being thought dead was bad enough but when she'd come back to town, explaining that she hadn't been dead, she'd been kidnapped, there had been more than a few embarrassed glances. More than a few matrons who clucked sympathetically to her face but whispered like vipers in the grass behind her back. Even Dr. Gensai had delicately asked if she needed aid with an unwanted pregnancy... As much as she loved the old man, she'd nearly slapped him. The implication that she, daughter of a samurai, couldn't protect herself, that she had been dishonored in the way that all women feared... it had been too much.

But Kenshin was unfailingly polite and scrupulous, even when he was falling over with exhaustion after the battle with Enishi, his manners never wavered.

A thought struck her like a thunderbolt. What if... what if he'd only married her to restore what shreds of reputation she had left?

Kaoru felt her fists clench and her jaw tighten. Forgetting the ladylike steps her mother had so painstakingly taught her, Kaoru stomped around the side of the house, only pausing when she saw Kenshin in his spot next to the laundry tub, up to his elbows in soaking wet kimono.

He looked up as she drew near, his smile shy, his bright eyes showing a glimpse of that tenderness she'd seen the night before.

"Ah, Kaoru-dono, one—"

Kaoru shot out both her arms and shoved him over. Unbalanced as he was perched on his toes, her new husband toppled over, arms flailing, and hit the ground with an "oof!" of surprise.

"Kenshin, you idiot!" she yelled. "I don't need your reputation! I was doing fine on my own!"

Kenshin looked up from the ground, his wet arms now smeared with the dirt of the yard. "Oro?"

Kaoru ground her teeth. "You could have at least had the decency to explain why you wanted to marry me before I went through with it!"

"But..." Kenshin shifted to stand, his expression utterly lost. "I thought you knew..."

Kaoru cross her arms over her chest. "Enlighten me," she snapped.

"I love you," he said simply.

Kaoru dropped her arms, her throat feeling tight. Kenshin was many things, but a liar was not one of them.

"Then..." she had to clear her throat. "Then why weren't you there when I woke up?"

Kenshin's confused expression cleared and he rubbed the back of his head. "Oro... One thought that you might like a bit of normalcy, that is. Overnight you... we became married. One thought that easing the transition... You seemed tired... one wanted to get a few chores done before you woke up... as a wedding present. A poor choice, perhaps, but there is breakfast..."

He trailed off in alarm as she approached him again, but this time she merely put her arms around him, burying her face into his shoulder. He was her husband now and this part of the yard was private enough. She was allowed to do stuff like this now and she would _not_ be embarrassed. Kenshin's hands hesitantly came up to hold her close, one hand stroking the river of hair flowing down her back. She remembered that this was new for him too because Kaoru wasn't Tomoe, and he had never treated her like she was.

"I'm sorry I overreacted," she mumbled.

Kenshin stiffened at her apology, and she had to smile at that. She rarely apologized. But... they were married now. Things weren't the same and they never would be again. But that wasn't a bad thing.

"One..." he cleared his throat. "One is sorry for not noticing your distress last night." He pulled away slightly, fingers lightly touching the softness of her cheek. "Please... in the future, tell me what's wrong. You know very well how thick-headed this unworthy one is. One does not wish to be a bad husband."

"I shouldn't have doubted you," she admitted and smiled. "I thought we would be more or less then same after we got married... but I guess we both have some things to learn."

He rested his forehead against hers. "That we do, Kaoru-dono."

-end-


	2. RuroKen Week Day 2 Family

RuroKen Week - Day 2 - Friendship or Family

* * *

Yahiko was distracted.

Kenshin didn't often sit in on classes in the dojo any more, but with Kaoru so close to giving birth to their third child, she hadn't wanted to overstrain her flagging energy on rowdy kenjutsu students.

Of course, being kept from what she loved only made her cranky, and so Kenshin was at the dojo, ostensibly there to reign in any students that Yahiko couldn't handle, but mostly to allow his very pregnant wife some needed relaxation time.

Far from the students misbehaving, however, was their sensei. Yahiko's mind seemed to be miles away. He would yell a kata for the students to practice and walk among them, only to miss the blatant errors that Kenshin could spot across the hall.

When a few of the younger set began to goof off without being reprimanded, Kenshin stood and called for a break.

Yahiko blinked at him in owlish surprise.

"Yahiko," Kenshin said after the students left the dojo to get water from the well, "something is troubling you, it is."

"Nah," Yahiko said, rubbing the back of his wrist over his forehead. "Well... maybe." He gripped his shinai with white knuckles. "Any chance I could talk to you after the lesson today?"

Kenshin blinked. "Of course."

Yahiko seemed a little more focused when the students returned from their break, and Kenshin wondered what could have rattled the boy so much that his attention had wandered from what he loved to do.

Boy. Kenshin shook his head with a slight smile. At eighteen, Yahiko couldn't be called a mere "boy" any longer. Sometimes, though, Kenshin still saw the scrawny kid with the pride of his lineage in his eyes as he threw Kenshin's coin purse back in his face.

Once the students had left and the last shinai put away on the stand, Kenshin waited for Yahiko to start the conversation.

"I've been saving some money," he blurted out as they exited the dojo and walked back to the house.

Kenshin eyed him. "Oro. A wise decision..." he said hesitantly, wondering where this was going. They paused on the engawa overlooking the garden.

"And the dojo's been doing really well," Yahiko continued as if Kenshin hadn't spoken. "It's a good, steady income..." He inhaled a breath, hands fisting on his hakama. "I..."

"Kenshin?" Kaoru slid open the shoji screen, one hand resting on her protruding belly. "What are you—"

Kenshin shot her a meaningful look. Her blue eyes widened, glanced at Yahiko's stiff back and she nodded. "I'll... make some tea."

Yahiko didn't speak again until they were both sipping from their cups.

"I'm going to ask Tsubame to marry me," Yahiko blurted out just as Kenshin lifted his cup to his lips.

"One thought as much," he said with a smile. "Congratulations, Yahiko."

"Kenshin," the boy said, his eyes serious. "There's something else... Tsubame's family is a little nervous. Their experience with samurai hasn't been all that... polite." He grimaced and Kenshin remembered then, the bullying samurai that had been blackmailing Tsubame into stealing for them so many years ago.

"I want to do this the right way," Yahiko continued with a determined voice. "To show them I'm serious... that I respect them and her." His cheeks were pink but his gaze didn't waver. "I... I was wondering if you... if you could stand as go-between for me and her father."

Kenshin froze. Strictly speaking, it should have been Yahiko's father or the nearest relative. But Yahiko had no family left, or at least none that had ever bothered to come forward. That he was asking Kenshin to stand in that place…

He cleared his suddenly tight throat.

"Ah," he said, "One would be honored to act on your behalf, that I would."

Something in Yahiko's shoulders relaxed and they sat side by side on the porch, sipping their tea, and watching the evening come into the garden.

-end-


	3. RuroKen Week Day 3 Beginning

RuroKen Week | Day 3: **Beginning** or Farewell

* * *

Kaoru kept one hand on the hilt of her bokken as she walked the streets near her father's dojo—_her _dojo. She shook her head, flipping her mare's tail of thick hair back over her shoulder as she turned another corner, eyes scanning the darkened street. One more block for her patrol, then she'd head home for what remained of the night. Kihei said she shouldn't, that the police could find the murderer much better than she could. But the murderer—the Hitokiri Battousai—had been terrorizing the streets of Tokyo for two months. Two _months _and the police still had yet to catch him.

When the murders had started, with the Battousai claiming to be from the Kamiya Kasshin dojo, Kaoru had demanded that the police to do something. Most of them were her father's former comrades—they knew that something like that wouldn't happen at her school. But as time went on and the bodies kept piling up, Kaoru stopped going to the police to check on their progress. It was time to take matters into her own hands. The sword that protected life would protect the honor of its school and its founder.

And it wasn't just honor she was defending. It was the townsfolk who trembled to go out at night. It was the students who no longer came to her school. It was for herself, the lone daughter of a samurai whom unkind people whispered that she would have been married by now if not for her tomboyish ways.

A rustling sound in the darkness just ahead made her pause and draw her wooden sword. "Who's there?" she barked.

With a startled yowl of indignation, a cat streaked away up the alley. Kaoru sighed, the tip of her sword drooping. She was truly tired if she couldn't distinguish the _ki_ of a harmless animal from a murdering fiend. _Maybe I need to call it a night..._

Ahead of her, a man in white hakama turned out of another intersecting street and began to walk away from her toward the market district. Kaoru narrowed her eyes.

The man was carrying a sword. Not a bokken, like hers, but a real sword. She could see the glint of the lacquered sheath in the moonlight and the wrapped hilt sticking out of his obi.

Only one type of person would openly carry a sword these days: someone who intended to use it. Someone like...

"Hitokiri Battousai!" she bellowed in challenge, running forward.

The man paused, looking around as if he wasn't sure if he was being addressed, and she had a brief moment to notice with shock the color of his hair. Then she shook it off and leveled her wooden sword at him.

"Finally," she growled.

The man's strange, light-colored eyes widened. "Oro?"


	4. RuroKen Week Day 4 Debate

RuroKen Week | Day 4 Duel or **Debate**

A/N: Just so you know Seisohen/Reflections does not exist. Also, another warning for **_fluff_ **because that's what's comes easiest when I'm writing against a deadline apparently.

* * *

"This one likes the sound of Kazue, that I do," Kenshin said, pressing his fingers into Kaoru's shoulders. She rolled her head forward, one hand resting on her swollen belly, to give him better access to her neck.

"'First blessing'?" Kaoru repeated, wincing as Kenshin's skillful fingers found a knot on her shoulder blade. "But Kenji was our first child."

"True, so it is. But this one will be our first girl. Strong and bright like her mother," he said, warmth in his voice.

Kaoru smiled as she pressed her hand against her side. A little heel kicked out against her palm. "Hmm," she said. "I don't think this one's a girl."

Kenshin released her shoulders and walked to where the tea tray was sitting just inside the shoji screen, bringing it out to sit between them on the engawa. The autumn evening was cool, but not uncomfortably so. Splashes of rich color blossomed from a few of the trees that grew near the walls enclosing the property. Soon they would all be draped in the colors of the late season.

"What makes you think this next child will be a boy?"

Kaoru tossed her head in a familiar gesture, and for a moment, Kenshin saw that girl of 17 again, leveling a bokken at his head.

"A mother can sense these things," she said in a lofty voice, swirling her cup of tea in her hands.

"Oro. You thought Kenji was going to be a girl as this one recalls." He chuckled as she aimed a swat at his shoulder.

"It gets easier to tell the second time around!" she sniffed. "Besides, he's big." She eyed the swell of her belly with a mixture of dissatisfaction and pride. Tiny people like Kaoru and Kenshin did not often produce large sons, but perhaps this one might be an exception. She glanced at her husband underneath her bangs, something shy and hesitant in her eyes. "I've thought of a boy's name... do you want to hear it?"

"Of course, that I do," Kenshin smiled, sipping his tea.

"I thought... Shinta."

Kenshin lowered his cup, staring at her, face unreadable.

Kaoru blushed and set down her cup of tea. "If you'd rather not—it was a stupid idea—forget I said anything."

"No," he said in a low voice, and slid his hand across the engawa to touch hers. "It is a good choice." He paused, shyly resting his other hand on her abdomen. "As you say, he is growing big already."

She smiled at the gentle joke. "Not too long now. Dr. Oguni said another two months yet."

Kenshin's eyes popped up to hers in surprise. "Really?"

She grimaced. "I know. I wasn't nearly this big with Kenji at this time. Oof!" She gasped as what felt like a little elbow had rammed into her lungs. Pressing against her belly, trying to get the baby to move into a more comfortable position, Kaoru wondered if she would last another two months.

"Still," Kenshin said, hiding a smile behind his cup. "This one thinks it'll be a girl, that I do."

Kaoru scowled. "Boy!"

"Girl, that it is."

"Don't think that because I'm carrying your child I won't wallop you a good one for arguing with me!"

#

The midwife had looked scandalized when Kaoru had insisted on Kenshin's presence, but the steel in his wife's eyes was as sharp as a katana, so the older woman relented.

Dr. Gensai was a calm and cheerful presence. He had assisted with the birth of Kenji and Kenshin was glad to have him at the birth of their second child. Their oldest son was currently with Yahiko somewhere at the other end of the house. Hopefully practicing katas or something that would distract them both from what had proved to be a long labor.

"Kaoru-chan, I think you're ready," the old man said with a smile from the other end of the futon. "Deep breath now... and _push!_"

Time passed in a blur of anxiety, Kaoru's hands on his arms, the murmuring encouragement of the midwife, and the yells torn from his wife's throat. _It was normal, _he found himself repeating over and over like a mantra. The midwife complimented Kaoru on how well she was doing, urging her along, and then Kaoru stiffened in his arms, her hands squeezing his so hard his bones ached.

"Congratulations," Dr. Gensai said with a smile. "You have a beautiful little girl..." He trailed off. Kaoru was still heaving, still straining, teeth clenched against a groan.

"Doctor!" the midwife's voice rose in sharp alarm and Kenshin's heart leapt into his throat. That fear, the old terror of losing her _again_ rose within him like a tide, and he had to physically restrain himself from reaching for a sword that wasn't there.

"What is it?" he demanded of the two at the business end of the birthing bed. "What's going on?"

But they were focused on Kaoru and didn't reply. Wide-eyed, the midwife looked up at her. "You need to push... again!"

The world seemed to contract in a way that Kenshin experienced during battle: he could hear each breath roaring through his lungs, see the sharp outlines of the people against the walls, and Kaoru's _ki_ seemed to press against his, strong and blazing like the sun. Then Kaoru slumped in his arms, drenched with sweat as she gasped, and Dr. Gensai's laughter filled the room.

Kenshin blinked, but what he saw did not change. The old man held a squalling, red-faced baby and so did the midwife.

"Oro?"

"Kenshin?" Kaoru struggled to sit up, her eyes also on the two bundles. "Am I... hallucinating?"

"Twins!" chuckled Dr. Gensai, passing over the baby in his arms to a stunned Kaoru. "You know, I thought this might be the case when you came for a check up a few months ago, but I didn't want to say anything in case I was wrong."

Beaming, the midwife also passed her bundle over the Kenshin who could only say "oro" again as he looked down in the face of a very red-faced... He blinked, realizing he didn't know the gender of his own children, but unwilling to unwrap his from the warmth of the blankets to find out.

"Oro... what... what are they?" he asked.

"You have the girl," Dr. Gensai replied, "And Kaoru-chan holds the boy."

They looked at each other, and Kenshin swallowed a laugh, feeling that it might not quite be appropriate, but Kaoru's eyes were bright with happiness, her face tired.

"Kazue and Shinta," she said. "I guess we were both right."

* * *

* _Kenshin's "gentle joke":_ I'm not a Japanese speaker by any stretch of the imagination, so relying heavily on what the internet told me, "Shinta" means "cultivate," "develop," or "to grow big." If the kanji that forms Kenshin's original name means something else, feel free to correct me.


	5. RuroKen Week Day 5 Seasons

RuroKen Week | Day 5: **Seasons**, Color, or Monochrome

* * *

_Summer_

Summer on Master Hiko's mountain smells like crushed grass, sake, and hope. Kenshin feels that tight spot in his chest—the one that had formed when his parents died—slowly relax, curling upward toward the sun like a crocus in the spring. The man in the white cape has not beat him like the slavers did. Sometimes he is wary still, especially after nightmares of bloodied corpses and the murmur of voices speculating on how much they might earn on his virginity.

But the nightmares are becoming fewer and farther between. Now there is only the smooth hilt of the bokken in his palms, the clean ache of his muscles after a hard day's work, and enough food to fill his belly and then some.

"Kenshin!" barks Master Hiko from somewhere outside the little cottage.

"Coming, Master!" Kenshin folds his futon neatly and pulls on his clothes. He's learning a new technique today, and he knows he will be sore later. But for now there is rice, and tea, that almost-fondness in his teacher's eyes and the smell of the grass under his feet.

_Fall_

Change is creeping through Japan. If it weren't for the village that he and Hiko travel to occasionally, Kenshin thinks that he might never have heard of the discontent sweeping across the land like an incoming tide. He listens to the idle gossip of two laborers digging a drainage ditch, a bag of rice on his shoulder, forgotten as he learns about factions forming for the shogun and for the emperor; about villages ransacked and children running crying, orphaned in an instant.

The trees along the path up the mountain are sunset orange, a lighter shade than his hair but of a kin. But his mind is on a darker shade—the scarlet stain of blood. He remembers all too well the dangers an orphaned child is exposed to. He remembers too the shock and joy of salvation in the form of his master.

Who was saving children now? Who was remembering them?

_I could,_ he thinks, looking at the sheathed sword at his side as if seeing it for the first time. He is no longer a helpless child. He is fourteen, a year shy of manhood, but he wears his hair in a samurai's queue, and he wields the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū. He has changed—he could _be _change.

His master is lounging against a tree when he returns, one hand curled lovingly around a jug of sake.

For the first time in his life, Kenshin looks at the man who saved his life and feels sick. He loves this mountain and his mentor, but he cannot stop the nagging feeling that there is something _more_ that they could be doing. What's the point of learning the most powerful style of fighting if you aren't going to use it in the service of the greater good?

Hiko opens one lazy eye as Kenshin stands there, staring. "What is it now, idiot?"

_Winter_

He kills his first man the year he turns fifteen. The target was a wealthy samurai who was spending thousands to equip soldiers of the enemy. With him eliminated, his clan would fall into disarray and turtle up, either to hoard the remaining wealth or to squabble it away as they would. Either way, enemy soldiers won't be as well equipped, giving the Imperialists an advantage in this corner of the war.

But as he looks at the older man's sprawled form in the falling snow, all he can think about is how red blood from a human body is against the purity of the snow and how it shouldn't have been so easy for his blade to slide into flesh.

A shout behind him makes him run and run until the pursuit is lost, but even after he wanders back to the safety of Choshu, he wonders if he is the one who is lost.

_Spring_

Kenshin awakes feeling strange. He reaches for his sword automatically, extending his senses in that way that Hiko taught him so long ago but he still only half understands.

Yahiko and Kaoru are still asleep, the blaze of their respective energies dampened like smoldering embers and he smiles, relaxing. There is no malevolent presence, just cheerful morning birdsong and his own unsettled nerves.

What is it? he wonders, as he gets up, folds his futon and dresses. As he's placing his sword into his obi, he glances around the room, somewhat disquieted to see that there was no other evidence of his presence in the room.

Shrugging away the uneasiness, he makes breakfast, and decides to practice a few kata to get the itch out of his shoulders.

But though he swings his blade until he's sweaty, it hasn't helped.

It isn't until later when Yahiko wakes up and cracks a joke about the laundry not being done, that he realizes what it is. Kenshin has been at the Kamiya dojo so long that he has a routine. The thought strikes him silent for a moment until a shinai bops him on the head for not paying attention.

Later, when he has time, elbow-deep in wet linens, he realizes that the feeling he's experienced all day isn't uneasiness… it is happiness. It shines in the blue-black swing of Kaoru's pony tail, catches him unawares when Yahiko bellows out a battle cry during his katas, and keeps him warm when Sano settles down beside him with rib-crushing poke in greeting. It is new, this feeling, fragile and bright like a soap bubble and—his breath catches at the sound of Kaoru's laughter—infinitely more precious.

For the first time in a very long time, Kenshin looks around at these bits and pieces of people who have become a strange sort of family, and feels like he's home.


	6. RuroKen Week Day 6 Birthday

RuroKen Week | Day 6 - Birth, Death, **Kenshin's Birthday, Kaoru's birthday**

* * *

_August 1878 - Post Kyoto_

Kenshin ducked into Akabeko with a shamefaced grin. "Sorry I'm late," he said as he approached the table where Sano, Yahiko, and Kaoru already sat and slipped off his sandals.

"About time!" Yahiko said, leaning forward to wave Tae over. "Now we can order."

"Yahiko! Don't be rude!" Kaoru snarled.

"Rude? Kenshin's the one who was late, why aren't you yelling at him?"

Tae wandered over to the table, a tray in her hands with a strange round pastry on it, topped with what looked like a candle.

"Happy birthday, Kaoru-chan!" beamed Tae.

Yahiko and Kaoru stopped bickering as everyone swung their heads to look at her. Kaoru blushed. "It's not my birthday!"

Tae sat the tray down with the little pastry in front of her. "It was in June, but you were..." Tae faltered. "Well, due to unfortunate circumstances, we weren't able to celebrate... and now that everyone's back from Kyoto, I thought..."

Kenshin noticed Kaoru's face turning crimson and frowned in concern. Just what had happened to her while he'd been on the road?

"Woo!" Yahiko cheered, pumping his fist into the air. "This calls for a celebratory drink! Bring us some saké!"

"No saké!" Kaoru demanded. "You drank yourself silly last week when we got back home. You need to learn to abstain."

Yahiko pouted. "But with two birthdays, we need to celebrate in style!"

Kaoru blinked. "Two birthdays?"

"Yeah," Yahiko said, folding his arms over his chest. "Kenshin's birthday is also in June. If we're celebrating yours, we ought to celebrate his too."

This time, four pairs of eyes converged on Kenshin.

"Oh dear," Tae muttered under her breath. "Tsubame-chan, go see if we have another cake."

"Kenshin, your birthday is in June too?"

"You told Yahiko your birthday?"

"Nah, Kenshin didn't tell me nuthin'," Yahiko said in response to Kaoru's surprised inquiry. "Found out from Master Hiko."

Kenshin blinked. "One wasn't aware he knew."

"You should have said something," Kaoru said, looking distressed. "We could have prepared a special dinner..."

Kenshin shook his head, smiling. "This one's family was too poor to celebrate birthdays, so one never had cause to keep track, that it is..."

Kaoru huffed out a laugh. "No wonder you aren't sure how old you are."

"If it's all the same to you, Kaoru-dono," he said with a gentle smile, "one would rather the focus return to you and your special day."

"Ah, we found another one!" Tae said triumphantly putting another pastry on the table.

"What is that anyway?" Sano asked, cocking his head.

"It's called a 'birthday cake.' It's a type of sweet bread," Tae said, drawing herself up proudly. "The boss decided to import some Western ingredients to test them out. If they're popular, they might be permanent additions to the menu. Westerners traditionally eat birthday cakes with candles on the anniversary of their birth."

Sano wrinkled his nose. "They eat... candles? Weird."

Tae frowned. "No! They light the candles, make a wish, then blow it out. If the flame goes out with one breath then that wish will be granted."

"So it's like burning incense at a shichi-go-san ceremony?" Yahiko asked, scratching his head. "Don't you need a priest for that?"

"No, no priest. Just you and the candle. Or candles. I think Westerners have more, but I thought it might be a fire hazard, so…" Tae said, then adding, "and then the cake is eaten afterward. Without the candle." She learned down with a taper and lit both of the candles.

"What are you supposed to wish for?" Kaoru asked, eyeing the small flame with doubt.

Tae spread her hands. "Anything you want." Then, glancing over at Kenshin, she winked at Kaoru. "And you don't tell anyone what you wish for otherwise it won't come true."

Kenshin, looking politely nonplussed, glanced up at Kaoru just as she looked up at him.

"Oro…" he said hesitantly.

"Yes, you have to make a wish too, Kenshin," Sano said with a grin.

Kenshin looked at the candle then back up at Kaoru, who was contemplating her own candle, her face pensive. Back in Kyoto, before they left the Aoiya, Sano had almost told him what had been wrong with Kaoru after he'd left Tokyo, but Megumi had smacked him over the head, hissed something to him about "interfering" and dragged him off re-bandage his broken hand. Though Kenshin didn't know the specifics, it was all too clear that she had been made unhappy by his leaving so abruptly.

_I wish for Kaoru-dono to be happy,_ he thought and blew out the candle.

#

Kaoru stared at the flickering flame of her birthday candle. Such a strange tradition! But what to wish for… There were so many things she wanted; so many things she needed. She risked a peek up and saw Kenshin similarly contemplating his candle. What would he wish for? Knowing Kenshin, it would probably be a wish on behalf of someone else. Such a kind man… always thinking about others before his own needs. How many times had she seen him slip Yahiko an extra fish at lunch time when he thought she wasn't looking. Yahiko, of course, didn't notice as quickly as he shoveled the food in.

And even now after that horrible fight in Kyoto he'd come home to her, started in on his chores as if he'd never left, and even began sparring with Yahiko a little, something he'd never done before.

Kaoru bit her lip. How could she waste a wish on something selfish like a hair ribbon or better equipment for the dojo? She took a breath.

_I wish for Kenshin to be happy,_ she thought and released her breath. The flame of her candle winked out.

#

"It was a little too sweet for my taste," Kaoru confessed as they walked home.

"That it was," Kenshin agreed, walking beside her. Some distance behind them, Sano and Yahiko were play fighting. Or at least it looked as if Sano was laughing while Yahiko's face was red with fighting spirit.

"Do you think the superstition about the wishes has any merit?" she wondered out loud.

"I hope so, Kaoru-dono," he said and for just a moment, the backs of their fingers brushed against each other.

Kaoru looked at him with a smile. "Me too."

* * *

_* shichi-go-san - special birthdays of childhood at 3, 5, and 7 years of age, usually celebrated at a local shrine._


	7. RuroKen Week Day 7 Free Day

A/N: Waaaay way late, this was originally started for the Ruroken Week Day 7: Free Day, but it gave me a lot of trouble so I shelved it until today when I finally wrangled it into something resembling a story.

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_"__So after he fights Jin'eh… what if [Kenshin] doesn't come back?"_ - Kaoru, Vol 2, Chapter 11

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Kaoru was tired. Hissing a breath between her teeth as she bent her bandaged wrists, Kaoru crawled under the covers of her futon.

Between getting kidnapped, her fear during the fight between Kenshin and that horrible Jin'eh, and breaking free of the hitokiri's strange technique, Kaoru was more drained than she'd ever thought she'd be. They'd stopped at Dr. Gensai's on the way back home. Kaoru's wrists were rubbed raw from the ropes Jin'eh had used to bind her. Kenshin—stupid Kenshin—had refused Dr. Gensai's treatment until her wrists were bandaged and then he'd taken her home despite her protests that she would wait.

"This one's wound will take longer to treat, Kaoru-dono," he'd said with a polite smile that revealed none of the pain he must be feeling from being stabbed in the shoulder. "Better that you get home as soon as possible to rest after your ordeal."

He had walked back to the doctor's clinic after seeing her safely inside the house. Now it was quiet. She should be sleeping, but sleep proved to be as elusive as catching smoke.

She wasn't afraid—she _wasn't_. Jin'eh was dead; there was no reason to be afraid. And yet…

Rolling out of her futon with an exasperated huff, Kaoru shed her nightclothes and got dressed. Tying the hakama felt good, the familiar motions calming the slight tremble in her fingers. Slipping on her sandals, she padded thorough the silent house and bowed her way into the dojo.

With the familiar grip of the shinai in her hands, Kaoru took her stance, swinging the sword down in a wobbling arc.

Frowning, Kaoru adjusted her grip and took a moment to inhale deep, feeling her ribcage expand tight against her breast bindings.

_The mind can be unsettled if you don't have enough air,_ her father had once said. _It is why breathing is so important to kenjutsu. Forget to breathe; forget to think. Forget to think and you've already lost._

In. Out. She swung the sword in a sharp, perfect arc, expelling the last bit of air in her lungs with a soft "ha!"

The exercise cleared her mind and she was able to face what really bothered her with painful clarity.

_What if Kenshin left?_ _What if he left Dr. Gensai's clinic and never returned? Not even to say goodbye?_

It had been a stupid trick with her ribbon. A desperate attempt to bind him to her with a promise to return what she'd given him. In the end, however, he was a free man—a rurouni—and she had to prepare herself for the day that he would leave.

Kaoru swung her sword again, blinking back tears. She'd been alone before Kenshin... it had been horrible and lonely, but she'd survived. But she didn't want to go through that again. Even Kiheh had been a welcome respite to the black pit that had threatened to pull her under in the wake of her father's death. Could she go through that again?

"What are you doing here so late?"

Kaoru whirled around, heart thudding, to see Yahiko stumble into the dojo with a mighty yawn.

"I couldn't sleep," she said, relaxing her stance as she quickly wiped her cheeks free of tears, hoping he hadn't noticed.

Yahiko narrowed his eyes, frowning. "He's coming back," he said he said after a moment. "You don't have to wait up for him."

Kaoru lifted her chin. "I'm not waiting for Kenshin," she said a little too quickly. "Like I said: I couldn't sleep."

"If you say so." Yahiko shrugged and turned to leave. Then he paused, one hand on the door frame.

"Just so you know," he said, not looking back at her, "even if Kenshin goes back to being a rurouni, you won't be alone again, 'cause I'll be here. And I'm not leaving." Then he scurried out of the dojo, shutting the door behind him.

Surprised and more than a little touched, Kaoru put away her shinai and padded softly back to her room. Just as she was shutting the door, she heard the front gate ease open. She hesitated, then shut her door with a smile and crawled into her futon, sleep finally closing her eyes.

-end-


	8. Prompt: Ships in the Night

Prompt: _Ships in the Night_ by Mat Kearny. Based loosely on the iPod shuffle challenge except I use Pandora.

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_1869 - Pre-series_

Kenshin sat on a bench in facing Osaka harbor. The sun had long since set on the port city and the dock was quiet except for the rustling waves. A few ships sat in the dock, creaking with the motion of the water.

Kenshin eyed their dark hulls with longing. It would be ridiculously easy to sneak aboard right now. He'd already checked. Two of them were headed out to sea, one to mainland China, the other to America. If he moved now, he could find a comfortable spot and be out with the morning tide and no one the wiser.

But still, he sat on this bench, his legs growing cold, his strange new sword clutched in his hands.

He'd almost killed someone yesterday.

When he'd made his vow, it was to stop killing intentionally and unintentionally. It was his intent to slay his enemy that killed Tomoe instead. But it hadn't occurred to him before that a vow would hardly supersede the training of the Hitsen-Mitsurugi ryu of slaying many enemies with deadly efficiency. He had to slow his attacks, pull back the strength of his swing...

He'd been on the road the day before, no real destination in mind: it was just enough to get away from Kyoto. He'd paused at a roadside stand to see if he could afford anything to eat when a band of ragged men had attacked, intent on robbery. Kenshin would have happily given up the little he had without a fight, but when the leader of the band started beating the shopkeeper, he'd stepped in. Within minutes, four men were writhing on the ground incapacitated, and he'd faced off with the leader.

Battle time had always confused him in hindsight: how could the moment between one breath and the next feel like hours? In that one second he'd analyzed the bandit leader's skills—negligible—and was already aiming for a quick kill spot before he realized what he was doing. The stroke he aimed at the leader instead of killing him, only crushed the man's right arm.

Kenshin closed his eyes, still hearing the man's shrieks of pain. Now he was here, considering whether or not to flee Japan. He could do it. He could go to China or even America, places that had never heard of Hitokiri Battousai. A place where he wouldn't need his sword.

But that was the coward's way out. Running away wouldn't solve his problem, nor would it absolve him of his sins.

If anything, it would add to them.

Standing, Kenshin tucked his sakabatou into his obi and turned his back on the docks and the gently rocking ships. He would keep wandering, making right what wrongs he could, and in time maybe he would find his redemption


	9. Prompt: Are you afraid of the dark?

The first night that Yahiko spent in the house, he left a lamp burning all night. Kaoru noticed it the next morning when she woke up to make breakfast. Grumbling to herself about forgetful kids, she tiptoed in and snuffed it while Yahiko snored on.

Later that morning over dried fish and miso soup, she mentioned it to him, adding that it was a bit of a fire hazard. Yahiko shrugged, made one of his sarcastic comments that she was already getting used to, and she thought no more about it.

Only after the second, third, and fourth time she found a lamp burning in his room long after Yahiko was asleep did she begin to suspect something was wrong.

"Yahiko," she said one morning as Yahiko scarfed down his bowl of rice. He always did so quickly, with one eye on her as if half-suspecting that she would take it from him. "You left the lamp burning again last night."

"So?" he said in a challenging voice, swallowing.

"It's okay to be scared of the dark," Kaoru said in what she hoped was a calm voice. This kid tried to antagonize her at every turn!

"I'm not scared of the dark!" the boy yelled, slamming down his rice bowl, scattering white grains all over the table.

"Now, now," Kenshin said with a smile, attempting to restore the calmness of the morning. "Kaoru-dono is only concerned, that she is..."

"If a fire starts because of your laziness, I—we lose everything," Kaoru said, fingers clutching her cup of tea rather harder than was needed.

Yahko scowled, turning his face away. "I'm not afraid of the dark," he repeated in a sullen grumble. "It's... it's for my parents. So they'll know where I am."

Kaoru and Kenshin exchanged a glance.

"Oro... do you think your parents' spirits are wandering?" Kenshin asked hesitantly.

Yahiko shrugged. "I wasn't given a chance to visit their graves before Tanishi dragged me into his gang to repay the debt. For all I know, they could be because maybe they don't know where I am, or... or that I'm okay." He scrubbed the back of his wrist over his mouth, dislodging a few grains of rice. "I'll stop leaving the lamp lit. I know it's unsafe." He stood from the table and left the room.

"Kaoru-dono..."

"Yes, I know."

#

The next morning, when Yahiko arrived in the kitchen, yawning and rubbing his eyes, he was greeted by Kaoru pressing two rice balls into his hands.

"What's this?" he said, blinking in confusion.

"Breakfast," she said in a cheerful voice. "Come on. We're skipping training this morning."

Kenshin poked his head in from the outside, smiling when he saw Yahiko. "Are you ready, Yahiko?"

"Ready for what?" he said around a mouthful of sticky rice.

Kenshin glanced at Kaoru. "We're visiting your parents' graves today. Hurry up. It'll take a bit of walking to get there."

Yahiko's hand holding his rice ball lowered and he looked at Kenshin, then back at Kaoru, noticing for the first time that she was wearing a nice kimono, not her usual training hakama.

"Lemme wash up first!" he said, cramming the rice ball into his cheek as he raced back out of the kitchen.

#

The walk to the district where Yahiko had been born took a couple of hours. They stopped only once when they arrived to purchase flowers and incense at the local market.

In the graveyard, the plot for Yahiko's parents was small and sadly grown over. Kaoru could tell by its shabby appearance and small headstones that Yahiko's parents had indeed died poor. They were crammed in with other similarly small headstones. Yahiko stood in front of the stones, hands clenched into fists. Without a word, both Kaoru and Kenshin knelt and began tearing up weeds. After a moment, Yahiko joined them.

When the plot was clear, Yahiko lit the incense sticks and bowed his head.

Kaoru and Kenshin did likewise.

_If you are wandering, _she prayed,_ come back to him. Rest, for your son's sake. _She paused, adding. _You don't need to worry. I will take care of him. And Kenshin too._

Kenshin and Kaoru retreated a few steps to give Yahiko a moment of privacy.

A few minutes later, Yahiko knelt to leave the flowers on the grave and walked to where Kenshin and Kaoru waited.

"Feel better?" she asked as they walked back to the dojo.

"Yeah," he said, scuffing one sandal in the dirt. "I never got a chance to say goodbye, really, so... " His cheeks flushed. "Thanks, I guess, for taking me." The boy hurried ahead of them.

Kaoru clucked her tongue in exasperation, but Kenshin's hand on her shoulder stopped her from chasing after him for a proper show of gratitude. "He is very grateful, he is. Boys his age have hard time of showing such things."

Kaoru softened a bit. "I suppose you're right."

When Kaoru headed to bed later that evening back at home, she peeked in Yahiko's room and saw, to her relief, that the lamp remained unlit.

-end-


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